Sliding door construction



Dec. 10, 1935. Q L, CLARK ET AL 2,023,664

SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 17, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 10, 1935. c. l.. CLARK ET Al.

SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Augt 1'?, 1929 Patented Dec. 10, 1935 UNiTED STATES PATENT OFFICE SLIDING DOOR CONSTRUCTION poration of Illinois Application August 17, 1929, Serial No. 386,592

12 Claims.

This invention relates to sliding door constructions, and more particularly to arrangements of this character, in which the door is adapted to slide from a closed position to an open position 5 along a predetermined path, such as disclosed in my cop-ending applications filed herewith, now Patent No. 1,948,065, Feb. 20, 1934, and Patent No. 1,956,372, April 24, 1934.

While the invention is of general application and is suitable for sliding doors for buildings of all kinds, such as warehouses, airplane hangars, and smaller installations such as cabinet types of furniture, it has particular advantages when adapted to garage doors. In the preferred embodiment adapted for garage construction, the door is composed of a plurality of sections exibly connected. With this arrangement the door is vertical in its closed position and. is adapted to slide upwardly along a track, which is bent along 20 a smooth curve, to a horizontal position inside the garage and above the door opening. Space about any door is at a premium, particularly with respect to garages in congested districts of cities. For this reason, it is one of the important general objects of the invention to improve the conservation of space necessary for guiding and operating the door.

Considerable difficulty has been experienced in making sliding garage doors tight against the 30 weather, especially when the hinged section type is used, and this problem applies to sliding doors generally where a tight closure is desired. Itis, therefore, a further object of the invention to improve the sealing of the door automatically with the closing movement of the door.

A further object of the invention is a simple and improved counterbalance arrangement for supporting the weight of the door and facilitating its operation.

Still another object of the invention is to permit the door to take a position substantially neri- Zontal in the open position, without necessitating a horizontal track for the full length of the door.

Other objects and features of novelty will be apparent as the following description proceeds, as read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is an interior elevation of one end of a garage having a door, according to the preferred embodiment of our invention.

Figure 2 is a partial internal elevation of the side wall of the garage, showing the door in vertical section.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail of a portion of 55V the structure shown in Figure 2.

(Cl. .Z-20) Figure 4 isv a section taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

Figure 5 is a partial elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 6 is a cross-section taken along the line 5v 6 6 of Figr 5.

Figure '7 is an end elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 5, and

Figure 8 is an elevational view of the yieldable mounting for the bottom guide roller of the door. 10

Referring more particularly to the drawings, one embodiment of the invention is illustrated in connection with a garage having side walls I9 and I I and a roof I2. The door opening occupies the greater portion of one end thereof and is provided with a frame I3. A sealing. member or abutment I4 is secured to the member I3 at each side of the door opening.

The sliding door, according to the present invention, comprises a plurality of horizontal sections I5, I6, Il and I8,respectively, arranged edge to edge and pivotally connected together in series by hinges I9, forming a flexible construction.

A track 20 is provided at each side of the door and comprises a straight substantially vertical portion 2l, a smoothly curved portion 22 and an upper straight horizontal extension 23. The curvature of the portion 22 is sharpest adjacent to the portion 2I. The portion 23 projects into the interior of the garage, so that in the open position, the door is housed thereby and will not project outside thereof. A stop 6U' is associated with the track, preferably located within the portion 23. The example shown is channel shaped in cross section, having its inner flange grooved as at 59.

Guiding means are provided for the sections of the door to cause them to follow the track from the closed position to the open position and return. In the preferredV embodiment of the invention, the guiding means comprises a plurality of rollers 24, which travel in the channeled flange 59 of the track. Means are provided for urging the door against the sealing strip I4 automatically with the closing movement of the door and for y this purpose, the track section ZI is inclined to the vertical, and. the rollers are mounted at an increased distance from the inside face of the door toward the lower portion thereof. This results in a wedging action as the door is closed, and further gives a very compact construction which requires a minimum of space when the door is in bothA the vertical and horizontal positions.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention,

the rollers 24 are respectively provided with ball bearings 25, journaled on oiset portions 26 of connecting members 21. It should be noted that the portions 26 are considerably wider than the rollers 24, and that the rollers may, therefore, slide axially therealong. The members 21 are preferably located at the joints between the adjacent sections, and arranged to form the pntles of hinges which connect the adjacent sections.

Accordingly, a special hinge connects with theV outer ends of the sections and comprises a pintle member 28 having a rolled portion 29, rigidly secured to the member21. A mating hinge portion 3i) is secured to the adjacent section and provided with upstanding ears 3|, which pivotally receive the member 21 outside of vthe rolled portion 29, thus forming a hinge of which the member 21 constitutes the pintle.

To permit the sliding door to take a horizontal position with its sections in substantial alignment, without necessitating the track portion 23 being straight for the full length of the door, the bot--Y tom of the door is provided with a yieldably mounted roller which permits the lower section to swing upward away from the; curve of track. The mounting of this roller is shown in Fig. 8. A base member 32 is secured to the lower section as by means of bolts 33 and is provided with upstanding flanges 34 having aligned apertures 35, which pivotally receive one arm' 36 of a two armed member, indicated generally at 31.V In the form shown, the member 31 has a parallel arm 38 which extends beyond the arm 36 and provides a mounting for one of the rollers 24. A spring 39 is coiled around the arm 36 and has oneend 4D secured to the base member 32 and its other end 4I secured to the arm 38, and normally urges the roller carried thereby toward its associated section. Y Y

Improved means have been provided for counterbalancing the weight of the door, and the friction of the parts. An elongated exible element 42, such as a cable or chain, is provided at each side of the door, having one Vend attached to a securing'member comprising a pin 43 secured to the bottom of the door. This cablepasses over a stationary pulley 44 and then passes under a movable pulley 45. The cable further passes over another Xed pulley 46 and a further movable pulley 41. rThe,movable-pulleys45 and 41 are mounted on a common block 48, and thexed pulleys 44 and 46 rare carried by a common bar 48. The end of the cable is also secured to the bar 49. The block 46 carriesa depending eye 56 which receives one end 'of a heavy coil spring 5I. The other end of the spring 5I visreceived by an eye bolt 52 passing through aV bracket 53 secured to thetrack and adjustable by means of a nut54. Y f V- v To limit the lowering movementY ofV the door a cable 55 is provided which passes through eye bolts 56 arranged along the bottom Yof thedoor and extendsk upwardly at each side, having its 1 ends 'secured to brackets51 mounted on the door frame.

A handle 58 is provided forthe manual operation of the door.

In'operation, assuming that the door is in theY closed position shown Vin Fig.Y l, the operator will Ygrasp the Vhandlek 58 and lift upward thereonV merely imparting thereto an initialu movement.

A slight force is all that is necessary for this pur-` r.48 inclusive, is/su'chnthat a'scomparatively small movement of the spring results from a correspondingly great movement of the door. As the door is lifted, the rollers 24 ride along the track section 2l The roller associated with the upper door section I5 will at once engage the curved section 22 and swing the upper section inwardly. The upper roller is mounted substantially below the upper end of the section I5 on account of the curvature at the section of the track 22, but the curvature is such that the upper section will ride 10 around without projecting into the roof. The dotted outlines indicated in Fig. 2 show the progressive positions taken by the upper section as it swings around the curved portion 22. Beyond the curved portion 22, the roller will engage the 15 straight horizontal portion 23 and the upper section from this point on will move in a horizontal line.

The intermediate rollers 24 will ride around the curved section 22, but as these rollers are at the 20 hinge pointsthe intermediate sections will not project above the track. Otherwise, they will ride around onto the horizontal portions 23 in substantially the same manner as described in connection with the top section I5. It will be ob- 25 vious that as the sections move onto the horizontal portion of the track, their weight will be supported thereby, hence the strength of the spring 5I is successively concentrated on the re'- maining sections, accelerating the opening of the 30 door.

It should be noted, as shown in Fig. 2, that the pulley 46 is mounted in the plane of the closed position of the door, and the cable', a ilexible element 42, is parallel to the door in thisY position. 35 In this arrangement the pin 43 will move in a rectilinear path, even though all of the door sections are moved to open or substantially horizontal position, as the stop 6i) prevents the door from drawing the pin 43 out of the rectilinear path. 40

The action of the lower roller is best shown in the enlarged View of Fig. 3. When the door has been raised and swung around from the vertical position to the elevated horizontal position, the lower section I8 would ordinarily take the po- 45 sition shown at I8 in Fig. 3, as its associated roller has a position in the curved portion 22 of the guiding track, and the action of the spring 39 urges the arm 31 toward the base 32, which holds the roller 24 close to the section I 8. At 50 this time, however,v the entire force of the counterbalance spring 5| is exerted on the outer end of the section I8, the weight of the upper sections being supported by the rrollers being in the horizontal portions or the track. The spring 55 5I 'is stronger than the springs 39, and serves to pull thev lower end of section I8 away from its roller. This action of thespring results in ele-V vating the door section I8 to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 3. By this expedient, the 60 door sections may be automatically aligned in the overhead horizontal position without necessitating that Ythe straight portion 23 of the track extendthe full length of the door.

From the foregoing description it will be readily apparent that the present invention houses the open door within the garage above the door opening, thus conserving the space, causes sealingof the door against the sealing member i5 automatically with closing movement `of the door, counterbalancesl the door, and permits the hinged sections'thereof to come intofalignrnent in the closed position, without necessitating a horizontal track for the full length of the door.

YWhile one embodiment of the invention has 75 been shown and described in comparative detail for the purposes of adequate disclosure, the broader idea of the invention is not limited in any of the details disclosed herein, but instead includes such embodiments thereof as are within the scope of the subjoined claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A sliding door structure which comprises means forming a doorway, a slidable door mounted therein, track members mounted along opposite sides of said doorway, means for guiding said door along said track members to open and close said door which includes rollers, shaft members along opposite sides of said door adjacent said track members and supporting said rollers for engagement with said track members, said shaft members being progressively and increasingly offset from the rear face of said door toward the front face of saiddoor from one end of the door to the other to cause said door to seal against doorway forming means as said door is moved into a closed position.

2. A sliding door structure which comprises means forming a vertical doorway, a slidable door mounted therein, inclined track members mounted along opposite sides of said doorway and curving away from the top of said doorway into a substantially horizontal position, means for guiding said door along said track members to open and close said door which includes roll ers, shaft members along opposite sides of said door adjacent said track members and both slidably and rotatably supporting said rollers for engagement with said track members, said shaft members being progressively and increasingly offset between said rollers and said door from the rear face of said door toward the front face of said door from the top of the door to the bottom thereof to cause said door to seal against doorway forming means as said door is moved into a closed position.

3. A sliding door construction comprising in combination, means forming a doorway, a door mounted therein and comprising a plurality of panels separated on horizontal lines, hinges connecting said panels, some of which hinges are located adjacent the side edges of said door and are provided with oifset pintle extensions, guide rollers slidably and rotatably mounted on said pintle extensions, an overhead track extending upwardly along said doorway and curved rearwardly therefrom into a substantially horizontal portion, said guide rollers engaging said track for movement of4 said door along said track, the offsetting of said pintle extensions progressively increasing from one end of the door to the other to cause said door to move into sealed relation with respect to said doorway forming means when the door is closed fi. In a sliding door structure, means forming a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides of said doorway and inclined away from the top of said doorway, a door, rollers along the sides of said door adapted to operatively engage said track members, brackets of uniform length on said door and shaft members having offset portions carried by said brackets and supporting said rollers, the offsetting of said shaft members progressively increasing from the top to the bottom of said door.

5. In a sliding door construction, means forming a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides of said doorway and inclined with respect to the plane of said doorway, a door l distances from the rear face toward the having a. plurality of sections, hinges connecting said sections along horizontal lines with certain of said hinges located adjacent opposite edges of said door and having pintles with extensions projecting from the edges of the door, rollers 5 mounted on said pintle extensions and engage with said track members, said extensions being offset from the rear face of said door progressively increasing distances from the top to the bottom of said door to accommodate the iiiclination of said track members and to move said door into a plane substantially parallelwith the plane od said doorway in the closed position of said door.

6. In a sliding door construction, means forml ing a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides of said doorway and inclined with respect to the plane of said doorway, a door having a plurality of sections, hinges connecting said sections along horizontal lines with certain of said hinges located adjacent opposite edges of said door and having pintles with extensions projecting from the edges of the door, and rollers mounted on said pintle extensions and engaged with said track members, said extensions being Y.

arranged to support the rollers eccentrically with respect to the pintles and to position the respective roller axes from the rear face toward the front face of the door progressively increasing distances from the top to the bottom of said door 'I to accommodate the inclination of said track members and to move said door into a plane substantially parallel with the plane of said doorway in the closed position of said door.

'7. In a sliding door construction, means form- 351 1 ing the doorway, track members mounted on cpposite sides of said doorway and inclined with respect tothe plane of said doorway, a door slidably mounted in said doorway, and means for guiding said door along said track members beo tween open and closed positions of the door, said means comprising rollers engaged with said track members, shaft members mounted along opposite sides of said door adjacent said track members, and a journalled portion carried by each shaft member for supporting a roller eccentrically with respect to its shaft, the journal portions of the respective shafts having their axes arranged progressively and increasingly greater front face of said door to cause said door to seal against the doorway forming means as said door is moved into its closed position.

8. In a sliding door construction, means forming a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides of the doorway, each track member comprising a vertical portion, a horizontal portion and an intermediate curved portion, a sectional door, means carried by the door for hingedly connecting the door sections and engageable with said track members for guiding the door from its closed position, where said means are associated with the vertical portions of said track members, to its open position, where said means are associated with the horizontal portions of said track members, means yieldably connected to the lowermost section of the door and engageable with the track members for guiding said door section during movements of the door, means for limiting opening movement of the door so that when the door is in its open position said yieldable means will be in engagement with the curved intermediate portions of said track members, and means for moving said lowermost door section relative to its guiding means and into horizontal alignment with the next adjacent door section when the door is moved into its fully open position.

9. A sliding door construction which comprises in combination, means forming a doorway, track members mounted along opposite sides of said door way, a door, spaced rollers mounted along opposite edges of said door and engaged with said track members for movement of said door to and from its closed position, means carried by said door for supporting said rollers comprising shafts having mounting portions attached to the rear face of the door and roller supporting portions projecting beyond the side edges of the door, said projecting portions being shaped so as to position the respective rollers on each side of the door with their axes spaced progressively at greater distances forwardly of the shaft mounting portions from one end of the door to the other to seal said door with respect to said doorway forming means in the closed position of the door.

10. A sliding door construction which comprises in combination, means forming a doorway, track members mounted along opposite sides of said doorway, a door, spaced rollers mounted along opposite edges of said door and engaged with said track members for movement of said door to and from its closed position, means carried by said door for supporting said rollers comprising shafts having mounting portions attached to the door so as to lie in a common vertical plane when the door is fully closed and roller supporting portions projecting beyond the side .edges of the door,

said projecting portions being shaped so as to position the respective rollers on each side of said door with their axes out of vertical alinement and with the axes of all of the rollers arranged below the top roller spaced progressively at greater distances forwardly of the axes of the top roller from the top toward the bottom ofV the door to seal said door with respect to said doorway forming means-in the closed position of the door.

ll. In a sliding door construction, means forming a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides oi the doorway, each track member comprising a vertical portion, a horizontal portion and an intermediate curved portion, a door structure, means carried by the door and engagable with said track members for guiding the door from its closed position, where said means are as- 5 sociated with the vertical portions of said track members, to its open position, where said means are associated with the horizontal portions of said track members, additional means yieldably connected to the lower end portion of the door and engagable with the track members for guiding the lower end portion of the door during movements of the door, said door when in its open position having said yieldable means arranged in engagement with the curved portions of said track members, and means for moving the lower end portion of said door relative to its guiding means and into horizontal alinement with the remainder of said door when the door is moved into its fully opened position.

12. In a sliding door construction, means forming a doorway, track members mounted on opposite sides of the doorway, each track member comprising a vertical portion, a horizontal portion and an intermediate curved portion, a sectional door, means carried by the door and engageable with said trackmembers for guiding the door from its closed position, where said means are associated with the Vertical portions of said track members, to its open position, where said means are associated with the horizontal portions of said track members, means yieldably connected to the lower end portion of the door and engageable with the vertical and curved portions only of the track members for guiding the lower end portion of said door during movements of the door, and counterbalancing mechanism for the entire door which is constructed and arranged to eiect movement of the lower end portion of the door into horizontal alinement with the remainder of the door, against the action of the yieldable means engaging the curved track portions, when the door is in its open position.

EARL W. CLARK. CARL L. CLARK. 

